"I like to see the break (from painting) that I had of 23 years as one where I stopped painting but was still an artist.

"I was doing the art and I was also banking, and then in 2007 the financial turmoil made it easier for me to make that decision to go full time into art."

He is off to an auspicious start. Two months ago his "Homage to Francis Bacon: Triptych I" fetched $332,500 at a contemporary art auction in New York, well above its high estimate and in spite of a marked downturn in art prices worldwide.
Continued...